Contents:
THE GRABBER, 'GAYFACE,' AND THE DANGER OF CONFLATG THE TWO IN THE BLACK PHONE
Content warng: This article discs homophobia, pedophilia/hebephilia, and child abe at length and ntas spoilers for "The Black Phone. " When discsg John Wayne Gacy, we refer to him as a serial killer, a hebephiliac, and a necrophiliac, but what we don't ll him is "gay, " bee he wasn't. So why are some people llg Ethan Hawke's performance of a character spired by him "gayface?
What is 'gayface? Gayface is the term ed to scribe a straight actor performg a riture of a gay person by playg to harmful trop.
Admtedly, there sperately needs to be a different name for this practice, as equatg gayface to the unfivably disrpectful "Blackface" is like parg appl to 400 years of systemic racism, but for the time beg, that's the term we have. Gayface is not only an offensive practice that relegat the reprentatn of queer people the media to paful stereotyp, but also ni queer actors the abily to tell their own stori while implyg that there's only one type of way to be gay. I first heard about the claims of gayface "The Black Phone" followg s premiere at Fantastic Ft 2021, and aga after the Beyond Ft screeng a few weeks later.